Go Free Yourself

…because on April 15, the rest of America will empty their wallets.

From Timothy Carney’s (senior reporter for the Evans & Novak Political Report) column in the Washington Examiner yesterday:

For a minority of Americans, however, Tax Day is worth celebrating because taxes — either the dollars you pay or the complexity of complying with the law (or both) — are good news for them. I call them tax bandits, and they fit into four categories: the tax spenders, the tax receivers, the tax parasites and the tax shelters.

Read more about these tax bandits here.

(Hat Tip: Mark Tapscott)

I posted yesterday about how federal lawmakers are, to say the least, misusing taxpayer funds. The National Taxpayers Union offers more proof of our politicians’ disregard for taxpayers with their 2007 Rating of Congress, based on every 2007 roll-call vote about spending or taxes.

“Despite campaign-trail promises from many Members of Congress to put Washington on a stricter diet, our 2007 Rating shows that, by and large, the only things shrinking on Capitol Hill are lawmakers’ pro-taxpayer scores,” NTU President Duane Parde said. “Overburdened taxpayers looking for an end to ‘earmarked’ spending, an extension of President Bush’s tax cuts, and an honest entitlement reform plan won’t like what they see in Congress’s performance so far.”

The Washington Examiner also weighed in on this problem in the Washington area, declaring that “local lawmakers spend like drunken sailors.”

Unfortunately, the voting records of the Washington-area’s senators and representatives show that most couldn’t care less about the growing burden of taxes on their constituents.

What they care about is using our tax dollars to advance their political interests.

Ho-hum, just another day. At least the Office starts again tonight!

See how your lawmakers rate here.

(Hat Tip: Mark Tapscott)

My friend Sarah over at It’s My Life posted on information overload the other day, and it got me thinking about how I personally stay informed.

You already know that I keep up on celebrity fashion mishaps at Go Fug Yourself. But for political news, I frequent the Drudge Report (who doesn’t?) and subscribe to a few political e-newsletters. I realized, however, that I actually delete all other newsletters without reading them, except for Mark Tapscott’s Copy Desk daily emails. They’re concise, interesting, and share some of the biggest political news of the day so that I can stay informed without drowning in a sea of boring and needless text.

If you’re interested, you can subscribe here.

Does anyone else have tips (or e-newsletter/site recommendations) for staying on top of political (or other) news without experiencing “information overload”?